White House to amend flagship health report citing phantom studies

A landmark report on children’s health that was found to contain no-existent studies will be amended by the US government.

Any citation errors, according to White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, were the result of “formatting issues” and would be fixed. Concerns about President Donald Trump’s appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health and human services secretary will be little tempered by the shortcomings of the report.

Digital news outlet NOTUS made the findings of the report, which was produced and released last week and featured the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission. According to it, seven of the studies cited did not exist, and there were also “misstated conclusions” and broken links.

According to Leavitt, the issues do not “overstate the report’s substance,” which is one of the most transformative health reports the federal government has ever produced.

More than 500 studies were cited in the report, which found that processed foods, chemicals, stress, and the overprescribing of vaccines and medications were possible causes of childhood chronic illness.

However, some of the authors who were credited with developing those studies claimed they were not involved in the study or that they were unrelated to it.

Noah Kreski, a researcher at Columbia University who is listed as one of the authors of a paper on adolescent anxiety and depression during COVID-19, claimed the paper was “not one of our studies” and “doesn’t seem to be a study that exists at all.”

A broken article was included in the report’s citation, along with a link to one in the peer-reviewed JAMA Paediatrics Medical Review. The article referred to “was not published in JAMA Paediatrics or any JAMA Network journal,” according to a spokesperson for the JAMA Network.

The Democratic National Committee criticized the report on Thursday, calling it “rife with misinformation” and accusing Kennedy’s organization of “justifying its policy priorities with studies and sources that don’t exist.”

Significant controversy erupted as a result of Kennedy’s approval as health secretary in February. He had previously sparked controversy in the scientific and medical sectors by denying whether vaccines were safe for use for decades.

He has cut billions of dollars from biomedical research spending and fired thousands of federal health agency employees since taking the position.

The Department of Health and Human Services stated that the MAHA report’s main themes remain the same: it is a historic and groundbreaking study of the chronic disease epidemic affecting children across the country.

High stakes as Poland heads to round two of presidential election

Poland’s Warsaw, Poland, saw the parade through the capital for one last time last Sunday, June 1, as two presidential hopefuls and their supporters walked into the country’s capital for the second round of voting for the nation’s next president.

Rafał Trzaskowski from the centre-right Civic Platform of the governing Civic Coalition and Karol Nawrocki, an independent candidate supported by the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ran Poland between 2015 and 2023, are the two remaining contenders in the election. Trzaskowski won 31 in the first polls round on May 18. Nawrocki received 29 percent of the votes, while Nawrocki received 1%. 5 percent.

Polling organizations claim that the final round’s vote is evenly split between the two candidates so far. 47 is based on a poll conducted by IBRiS for Polish news outlet Onet. 7 percent of respondents intend to vote for Trzaskowski, with 46 percent indicating they will vote for Nawrocki. The rest are unsure.

Andrzej Duda, the incoming nationalist conservative president who was supported by PiS and who is accused of stifling justice reforms by using his veto against the government, will be replaced by one of the two.

This is a hotly contested race. Concerning the European Union, national security, and social values, Trzaskowski and Nawrocki clashed. Both candidates have used anti-Ukrainian rhetoric in a similar hardline way to immigration, while also reviving growing animosity among Poles, who view themselves as a front-runner for strained social services with 1. 55 million Ukrainian migrants and war refugees.

Nawrocki went further, saying he would oppose Ukraine joining NATO or even the EU, while Trzaskowski has suggested that only working Ukrainians should be able to access the nation’s child benefit.

In Warsaw, Poland, on May 25, 2025, the husband and wife of President Rafal Trzaskowski, Malgorzata, wave to thousands of supporters during the Great Patriotic March.

‘Every vote is needed’

Trzaskowski addressed his opponent at his “Patriots’ March,” which attracted about 140,000 supporters over the weekend and called for unity.

It’s high time for truth to prevail. It’s high time for integrity to win. Justice must now prevail. Truth must now prevail. That’s what these elections are about,” he declared to a cheering crowd.

It takes a lot of determination. Every vote is required. So that the future wins. so that Poland overall wins. ”

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Trzaskowski has served as Warsaw’s mayor since 2018. His remarks about “honesty” are interpreted as a reference to a recent article about Nawrocki allegedly buying an elderly man’s apartment in Gdansk in exchange for a pledge to care for him. The man’s family claims that the promise was broken, and he was taken to a state nursing facility.

In response, Nawrocki has said he will donate the flat to charity and pointed out that under Trzaskowski’s mayorship, families had been evicted from state accommodation in Warsaw.

Contrary to Nawrocki, Trzaskowski has supported calls for LGBTQ rights as well as the liberalization of the nation’s strict abortion law in the past. He is viewed as a more liberal candidate than his opponent. However, he has largely avoided these topics during this campaign. If elected, he would be more likely to help the governing coalition pass various bills, primarily reforms to the rule of law and the justice system, which have so far been blocked by Duda.

Bartosz Rydlinski, a political scientist at the Warsaw-based Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University, predicted that Rafa Trzaskowski would be a pro-European politician. He would first travel to Berlin, Paris, and Brussels. He would try to maintain close relations with the US, but focus on strengthening the European component, both in the European Union and in NATO. ”

Nawrocki
The weekend before the second round of the presidential elections, which will take place in Warsaw, Poland, is Karl Nawrocki, the candidate supported by PiS.

US endorsement for Nawrocki

Nearly 50,000 people participated in Nawrocki’s weekend “March for Poland” through central Warsaw, which highlighted his nationalist, pro-Catholic, and free-market views. He contends that Poland should prioritize its relationship with the US over the EU.

But his real triumph came this week when he received an official endorsement from Kristi Noem, President Donald Trump’s secretary of homeland security.

At the annual gathering of US conservative activists and officials called the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPA), Nawrocki presented his vision for Poland’s future on Tuesday. Although the event typically takes place in the US, it took place in Hungary in 2022. This year, it was held in the Polish town of Jasionka, southeastern Poland, close to the air and shipment hub which supplies weapons and aid to Ukraine.

Relations with the United States are based on a solid foundation of values for Poles and us. The audience, which included US Secretary of Homeland Security Noem, Vice President JD Vance, billionaire Tesla owner Elon Musk, and former White House political strategist Steve Bannon, who served as president in 2017 for the first time, included him.

“My opponent, Rafał Trzaskowski, is playing dishonestly,” said Nawrocki, who claims Trzaskowski would follow EU orders blindly, including on relaxing immigration rules. He also doesn’t want to reveal what his true vision for Poland after June 1st, 2025 is, despite lying in public debates and being caught in these lies. This notion is also glaring. Speed ​​up the migration pact, speed up the climate pact and pursue a policy that is important for Brussels, not for our security. ”

Noem
At the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC, held on May 27, 2025 in Rzeszow, Poland, US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem delivers a speech. She endorsed Nawrocki for president of Poland [Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Images]

After a long week of negative news, Nawrocki received a much-needed boost from the event.

First, on May 22, Slawomir Mentzen, the far-right leader of Konfederacja, who finished third in the first round of the presidential election, claimed that Nawrocki had participated in a fight between football hooligans in 2014, which Nawrocki has never denied.

Then, in a TV debate the following day, he was seen placing a small sachet on his gum, thought to be filled with tobacco, but which prompted speculation that he might have been taking drugs. On Tuesday, Nawrocki responded with a negative result from her drug test.

Onet later published a news story claiming that Nawrocki had participated in the supply of prostitutes to guests of the Grand Hotel in Sopot, where he worked as a security guard, when he was a young man. Nawrocki denied the claims and, in a post on X, stated that he would sue the outlet.

However, it appears that his support has not changed as a result of the negative news.

He was 28 when the hooligan fight occurred, and I don’t think that’s a problem because I believe men should be able to fight. When it comes to other issues – everyone can make a mistake, and it does not have to mean bad intentions,” said Marcin Mamon, a right-wing freelance journalist who claimed the alleged scandals involving Nawrocki have been exaggerated.

Voting for a conservative or right-wing candidate is a declaration of values, such as the Catholic faith. Voting for the opposing candidate would mean I would vote against abortion and against the Church. ”

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Parliamentary impasse

For the former PiS government to reverse contentious judicial reforms, especially those that pertain to the judiciary’s independence, having a like-minded president would be crucial.

As a result of the changes, which were deemed to contradict European law, in 2021, the European Union imposed penalties on Poland. Civic Platform was elected in 2023 with the promise to reverse the contentious laws, but because President Duda has the power to veto and would veto any attempts to change the law.

A total war with the government would be won by Nawrocki, according to Rydlinski. “He would be a much more conservative president than Andrzej Duda, and he would probably refer many bills to the Constitutional Tribunal, which is still under the control of judges elected by the Law and Justice government. ”

A victory for Nawrocki, in the opinion of experts, would also put Poland and Europe on a collision course.

“Karol Nawrocki would very strongly opt for bilateral relations between Warsaw and Washington, breaking up the EU’s unity,” Rydlinski said. He would have a major conflict with Germany, deteriorate relations with France, and undoubtedly a conflict with Brussels. He would also be a mini-Trump in Central Europe. ”

Nawrocki’s conservatism and fascination with Trump have sparked concern among some Polish voters. People who voted for left-wing or centrist candidates in the first round are likely to ally themselves now, not against what they perceive as Nawrocki’s Trump-like outlook for Poland.

The candidates who lost in the first round have indicated their support for Trzaskowski, and they are expected to do the same for their supporters.

“Putting a cross next to Trzaskowski will not come easy for me,” said Zofia Szeremet, a 20-year-old student based in Warsaw who voted for the left-wing leader of the Razem party, Adrian Zandberg, in the first round. However, I have no way of thinking of not participating in such a significant election. Trzaskowski is a guarantee for Poland’s pro-European course, despite my disagreements on many fronts.

“Nawrocki is anti-EU, anti-Ukrainian, inexperienced and incompetent, and I don’t imagine a president having ties with hooligan movements. ”

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A close call

Polls are inconclusive when it comes to the election favourite. However, the first round of the voting revealed that the two largest parties have grown weary of maintaining their supremacy.

The Nawrocki and Trzaskowski results are slightly above 60%, which is the worst result since 2005 when added up. It is clear that Poles are looking for an alternative, and not only on the right, but also to the left,” said Marcin Palade, political sociologist and expert on electoral geography in Poland. Andrzej Duda and Rafal Trzaskowski, the top two candidates in the 2020 presidential election, won almost 74% of the vote.

The polls had predicted that Rafa Trzaskowski’s performance would be below what the odds were that he could win in the worst possible way, according to Palade. “Nawrocki had the worst result a PiS candidate has had since 2005, below the ratings of the party that has stood behind him. ”

Japanese seafood set to return to China after Fukushima wastewater row

Following a nearly two-year trade ban, China and Japan are close to striking a deal that would allow the Japanese to import seafood into China.

Following a successful meeting in Beijing this week, the two parties are now finalizing details, according to Tokyo on Friday.

Yoshimasa Hayashi, the head of Japan’s chief cabinet, told reporters that the government had reached a “resume of the technical requirements necessary to resume the exports of fish to China.”

As soon as the re-registration process for export-related facilities is finished, Hayashi said, humming the pending deal as a “milestone”.

After Japan released more than 1 million metric tons of radioactive treated waste from the former Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, China imposed a ban on Japanese seafood imports in August 2023. Three of Japan’s six nuclear reactors collapsed during the notorious earthquake and tsunami in 2011 and caused the power plant to collapse.

The International Atomic Energy Agency supported the release of wastewater, but neighbors like China were upset about it.

Exports will resume once “necessary procedures” are completed, according to China’s General Administration of Customs, on Friday, after “substantial progress” has been made in negotiations.

The agreement establishes a number of new rules for Japan, whose fish processing facilities will need to register with China.

According to Japanese officials, exporters will also need to include inspection certifications that prove seafood has been tested for radioactive material.

Due to concerns relating to the 2011 accident, China will continue to restrict exports of marine and agricultural products from 10 Japanese prefectures.

Death at the cross: Secret burials, ‘cult-like’ practices at Kenyan church

A fake sign proclaims the Melkio St. Joseph Missions of Messiah Church in Africa, which is perched in the grass along the Rongo-Homa Bay Road in Kenya’s Migori County. Beyond it, a sandy path meets big blue and purple gates that barricade the now-deserted grounds from view.

When rumors of secret burials and “cult-like” practices came to light just over a month ago, the church in Opapo village.

On April 21, local police stormed the grounds and discovered two bodies buried within the fenced compound – including that of a police officer who was also a church member – as well as dozens of other worshippers who had been living there.

57 people were saved and taken into custody during the raid. In the weeks since, most have been released, but police have banned them from returning to the church and sealed off the compound.

For Kenyans, the incident has opened the minds of other contentious churches that are rife with abuse allegations, such as the 2023 case in which more than 400 members of a church-cult were killed in the Shakahola Forest.

In Opapo village, residents are troubled by the deaths&nbsp, and the decades-long secrecy surrounding the church. Many people support the compound’s permanent closure and exhumation and burial of the dead there.

Brian Juma, 27, has lived directly beside the church all his life. According to him, the church’s followers prayed to a man who had established himself as a sort of god figure.

Juma claims that when the church leader died 10 years ago, followers did not immediately bury him but prayed for three days in the hope that he would rise.

The congregation was established in their area in the early 1990s, according to Pauline Auma, a 53-year-old mother of six who also resides close to the church.

“When it came, we thought it was a normal church like any other. My sister once said that the place was like other churches when she attended one, but she later came over and explained that things weren’t going to go as planned. For example, she said the Father there claimed to be God himself”, Auma recounted.

The church began recruiting new members from various locations throughout the nation in the years that followed. Juma said congregants were not from around the area, spoke different languages, and never left the compound to go to their own homes.

The church has several branches in the Kenyan Nyanza region, and members move from one location to the next, according to Caren Kiarie, a human rights activist from neighboring Kisumu County.

Many people came to worship and live within the church full time, Opapo villagers remember.

[Dominic Kirui/Al Jazeera] Brian Juma, a neighbor of the Melkio St. Joseph Missions Church in Opapo

“They were very friendly people who did business around the Opapo area and interacted well with the people here”, Juma said. They all returned inside the church in the evening, but they would never live there. Within the church compound, they had cattle, sheep, poultry and planted crops for their food”.

Locals claim that the worshippers’ children, some with their parents and others who neighbors claimed were taken in alone, never attended school, and that they were prohibited from seeking medical care if they were ill.

On the day of the police raid and rescue, many of the worshippers looked weak and ill, said Juma, who over the years befriended some young people whose parents belonged to the church. He remarked, “They were sick because they were never allowed to go to the hospital or even take pain medication,” citing what his neighbors had already said to him. Auma believes those who were rescued that day were the sickly ones, as the others had escaped.

The 57 initially objected to leaving the compound, insisting that the church was their only “home.” But police took them to the nearby Rongo Sub-county Hospital to be treated. Instead of resending medical bills, they began singing Christian praise songs in Dholuo. Auma said the songs were chants asking God to save them and take them home to heaven.

Health workers advised them to be moved out of the hospital because they were disturbing other patients. That’s when they were taken into police custody. The worshippers were released from police custody two weeks ago, but the assistant county commissioner, Josphat Kingoku, was unaware of where they were.

Seeking news about loved ones

Linet Achieng, a 71-year-old mother who left home to join the Migori church 11 years ago and never returned, worries about her in Homa Bay County’s Kwoyo.

Her mother was introduced to the church by a neighbour who was originally from Migori, Achieng said.

She had previously visited the church to seek medical attention after a backache that had troubled her for years, according to the 43-year-old, adding that the church had provided health guarantees.

The family initially kept in touch with their mother, asking when she would come home after being healed. She made repeated promises to return, but they never did. Achieng tried to convince her mother to leave the place, she said, but her attempts&nbsp, were in vain.

She abruptly stopped talking to us, and when my younger brother and I went to see how she was doing, we were told to leave the church and told to stay there until we were ready, she said.

After the raid last month, Achieng learned her mother was among those rescued but says she does not want anything to do with her family.

One family is certain they will never see their loved one again, despite the many families of worshipers who wait to learn about their relatives.

Migori church
The main entrance to the now deserted Melkio St Joseph Missions Church in Kenya’s Migori County]Dominic Kirui/Al Jazeera]

According to local media reports, one of the victims was police constable Dan Ayo Obura, who passed away at the church compound on March 27.

He had been introduced to the church by his wife, who was a leader there, his relatives said.

According to his uncle Dickson Otieno, Obura left his job at the General Service Unit police headquarters&nbsp in Nairobi in February and then traveled on sick leave to Kisumu County.

He was taken to a hospital in the area, but after a week at the facility, “he disappeared”, Otieno told Al Jazeera.

We called the police, where we discovered him, and began to search for him everywhere in apprehension. Later, we had information from some neighbours that he is in Migori at a church. We then went there and inquired about him with the church leaders. They told us he was not at the church and had not seen him.

They called us about a month later to inform us that the person we were searching for had passed away the night before and that he had been buried that day.

The family then informed the police and human rights activists like Kiarie, and travelled to Opapo to try and locate his body.

In March, Kiarie, a rights advocate and paralegal at the Nyando Social Justice Centre, took the family to Opapo.

” We’ve not been given the body, “she told Al Jazeera, explaining that she interviewed residents and church members while in Opapo and heard concerning reports about what was happening at the compound.

She claimed that no one at the church was permitted to have intimate relationships, and that both husbands and wives had to break up after joining. These practices&nbsp, were echoed by the compound’s neighbours in Migori.

According to Kelly, “There are also serious allegations of sexual violence at the church where the male leaders were having sex with the female and male leaders there.” That was why they did not want any man inside to touch the women because they belonged to them, “she alleged.

According to Kiarie, the compound’s neighbors have reported that there may be more than just two bodies buried inside since the police raid, which she said could be the reason Obura’s exhumation is stalled by. They’re still waiting because they said the issue has been picked up by the national government, and they]the national authorities] want to exhume the other bodies]that may be there], “she said.

If it is discovered that more people actually died and were buried there without their families’ knowledge, Kiarie believes the Migori church could turn out to be another instance of the Shakahola cult massacre.

Kenyan forensic experts and homicide detectives, dressed in white personal protective equipment, carry the bodies of suspected members of a Christian cult to waiting vehicles as part of an investigation.
Forensic experts and homicide detectives carry the bodies of suspected members of a Christian cult named as Good News International Church, who believed they would go to heaven if they starved themselves to death, after their remains were exhumed from their graves in Shakahola Forest of Kilifi county, Kenya, April 22, 2023]File: Reuters]

From Migori to Shakahola

The events in Migori have opened wounds for many survivors and relatives of the 429 people who were starved to death in Kilifi County’s Shakahola, in 2023.

The congregationalists there also abandoned their homes and property in search of a meeting with their messiah, led by Pastor Paul McKenzie. But news reports said that at the church, they were radicalised and brainwashed, convinced that if they stopped eating they would die peacefully, go to heaven and meet their god.

The 32-year-old Kilifi mother of three claims that both Grace Kazungu’s parents and two of her siblings perished in the Shakhola church cult.

Whenever she and her brother tried to question the church’s teachings, the others would not hear a word against it, she told Al Jazeera.

They would argue that our church was the only holy and sacred way to heaven, and that we were “anti-Christ,” she said.

” Months later, I heard from my brother that they had sold the family’s property and were going to live inside the church after ditching earthly possessions.

“Our attempts to reach them were blocked by their leader. My husband broke the news to me one morning after a year that they had been found inside the forest and they were dead and buried”.

They were interred in mass graves within the church’s Shakahola Forest after their deaths. Upon discovery, following a tip from the local media, the police launched an operation to cordon off the area so they could exhume the bodies, test for DNA, and return the deceased to their relatives for proper burial.

Later, they detained the church’s leader, McKenzie, and charged him with “terrorism,” child torture, and the murder of 191 people. He and several other co-accused remain in police custody, pending sentencing.

In Opapo and Rongo towns, the Migori church’s followers were able to work, eat, and run their own businesses, in contrast to Shakahola. But like Shakahola, it also kept them living apart from the rest of society, barred them from accessing school, marriage and medical care, and severely punished supposed transgressions, according to locals who heard and witnessed violent beatings and fights inside the compound.

Religious leaders are frequently influenced by their beliefs and behavior in both the private and public domains in many societies, according to Fathima Azmiya Badurdee, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.

“People are in search of ‘ hope ‘ in the daily issues they confront. Religious leaders play a crucial role in giving people hope for their futures, or even for life after death, she explained.

Still, “awareness among religious communities on opportunistic leadership and cult dynamics is needed”, she said, referring to the Opapo and Shakahola forest cases.

“Many people don’t question religious leaders, but they do so blindly. Words and opinions of religious leaders are taken as the gospel truth. She continued, “People frequently believe in any extreme forms propagated by these leaders due to their lack of questioning, critical thinking, or even religious literacy.”

Migori church
Police car tracks outside the church in Opapo village after it was raided]Dominic Kirui/Al Jazeera]

I’m concerned that she might pass away.

Most of the 57 Migori worshippers are now back in society once more. While investigations and autopsies continued this month, police extended the arrest of four key suspects.

Assistant county commissioner Kingoku declined to provide details to Al Jazeera about any charges against the worshippers, saying they did not appear in court.

According to Michael Muchiri, a spokesman for the Kenyan National Police Service, “everyone found guilty will be prosecuted as directed by the law,”

Investigations are ongoing into Obura’s cause of death, verification of additional burials alleged by residents, and a probe into whether the church operated as an unregistered “company” rather than a licensed religious organisation.

The church had been allegedly registered as a business without proper authorization, according to Mutua Kisilu, the county commissioner. After the raid last month, Nyanza regional commissioner, Florence Mworoa, announced a region-wide crackdown on unregistered churches.

Muchiri claimed that the government oversees religious organizations and will prosecute anyone found guilty of breaking the law.

“Any illegally operating organisation – the government has been clear about it – is quickly shut down. Following is the Migori case, similar to the prosecution. Identification of such ‘ cult-like ‘ illegal religious entities is through the local intelligence and security teams and information from the local people”, Muchiri said.

After the worshippers were released from custody, Achieng finally spoke to her mother in Homa Bay one more time. She told her daughter that she had found a new home and that her family were “worldly” people who she should never associate with again.

I anticipated releasing her after she was released from police custody, but I was concerned that she might not agree to go home with me, Achieng told Al Jazeera. She believes her mother will never return home. At the church, I worry that she might pass away.

Meanwhile in Kisumu, Obura’s family continues to mourn him as they work with Kiarie’s organisation and the police to try and secure a court order allowing them to exhume his remains.

According to Luo culture and customs, all they want is for him to be buried at his ancestral home and be removed from the church.

South Korea set to break early voting record as presidential election looms

More than 12 million voters cast ballots in South Korea in preparation for the nation’s upcoming presidential election, breaking a record for early voting.

More than a quarter of South Korea’s 44.3 million eligible voters are now voting early, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency, which is the figure that was at midday on Friday.

Before the official vote on Tuesday, in which case South Koreans will choose Yoon Sook-yeol will be replaced, early voting began on Thursday and will end on Friday.

In December, Yoon temporarily declared martial law in South Korea before the National Assembly overturned the controversial decision.

The former president claimed that anti-state and North Korean forces had influenced the government’s infiltration, leading to his decree declaring martial law and ordering the arrest of opposition politicians.

Yoon was impeached the same month, but he didn’t take office until April when the constitutional court of South Korea approved the impeachment vote.

Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party’s front-runner, received 42.9 percent of votes in the final poll before the election, according to Yonhap, Kim Moon-soo from Yoon’s conservative People Power Party, who received 36.8 percent.

Lee Jun-seok, a conservative candidate for the New Reform Party, who had only 10.3% of the vote, was a distant third place behind the candidates.

On May 29, 2025, a woman casts an early ballot at a polling station in Incheon, South Korea. [Photo: Pedro Pardo/AFP]

According to David Lee, a journalist from Seoul, electorate turnout has been highest in regions of South Korea with the Democratic Party, while turnout has been lowest in conservative districts like Gyeongsang Province.

He told Al Jazeera, “The Democratic Camp has much higher morale now, especially after the historic impeachment trial.” On the other hand, PPP supporters are navigating murkier waters.

A divided public has mobilized both for and against the impeached Yoon in South Korea, where the vote is expected to end months of political unrest.

According to Lee, early voting provisions have also contributed to the election period’s prevalence of fraud conspiracy theories.

According to Yonhap, South Korean police reported an increase in the vandalism of campaign materials and reported that they had arrested at least 690 people over the course of a related incident this week.

Following threats to his life, frontrunner Lee admitted to wearing a bulletproof vest and installing bulletproof glass at campaign rallies.

Additionally, according to police, they reported 11 instances of threats to Lee and one to the candidate of the New Reform Party on social media this week.

China sets up international body in Hong Kong to rival World Court

Beijing hopes to compete with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as the world’s top international mediation body after signing a convention with the Chinese government to establish an international mediation center in Hong Kong.

In a ceremony presided over by Wang Yi, the Chinese minister of foreign affairs, the Convention on the Establishment of the International Organization for Mediation (IOMED) was signed into law on Friday in Hong Kong.

Representatives from several nations, including Indonesia, Pakistan, Laos, Cambodia, and Serbia, were present at the ceremony. According to Hong Kong’s RTHK public broadcaster, representatives from 20 international organizations, including the UN, were also present at the ceremony.

The body’s jurisdiction, according to a video shown at the signing ceremony, would include cases involving international private entities, international organizations, and disputes between nations.

In an effort to strengthen Hong Kong’s position as a top global mediation hub, Beijing intends to establish the city’s waning international reputation.

The “world’s first intergovernmental international legal organization dedicated to resolving international disputes through mediation” was described in an un-bylined opinion piece published in China’s state-run Global Times newspaper.

According to the statement, IOMed would address a “critical gap in mechanisms devoted to mediation-based dispute resolution.”

The establishment of the International Organization for Mediation is a milestone in international governance, it continued, citing the importance of “amicable way” to resolve disputes.

The ICJ, the UN’s main judicial body, is currently the most effective means of resolving legal disputes between member states in accordance with international law. Additionally, it offers legal advice on matters that UN bodies have referred to it.

This week, Hong Kong’s CEO, John Lee Ka-chiu, claimed that IOMed’s status would be comparable to that of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and the ICJ.

Lee added that it would encourage Hong Kong’s “substantial” economic benefits and employment opportunities as well as stimulate various industries, including hospitality and transportation.

After more than a century and a half as a British colony, Hong Kong’s economy has stagnated steadily since being handed back to Chinese rule in 1997.

Beijing’s increasing influence over all facets of the territory’s life, including the economy, has stifled investor confidence, and there is still lingering gloom about China’s post-pandemic recovery.

Hong Kong’s Justice Secretary Paul Lam stated in an opinion piece that the country would benefit from having its problems “de-internationalized and de-functionalized” it in a report published in the South China Morning Post.

In response to China’s model of government, which claims to grant it a level of autonomy, Hong Kong needs to make good use of the IOMed headquarters as a focus for strengthening the city as an international dispute resolution center.